Dad of woman killed on Tri-State: 'She was my baby'

Danielle M. Pisterzi hoped to graduate from Northern Illinois University this year with an accounting degree, but first she needed to complete an internship at a firm.

Her family believes Pisterzi, 21, was returning to her home on the Northwest Side late Saturday night from her job when she collided with an SUV near Willow Road on the Tri-State Tollway.

Pisterzi had been working long hours in her internship at Warady and David LLP in Deerfield, because the firm was busy with the tax season, her father Frank Pisterzi said. "She was my baby," he said.

Danielle Pisterzi was driving a 2004 Hyundai when she struck an Audi SUV carrying four people around 10:45 p.m., state police said. people inside, police said. Pisterzi was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 11:52 p.m.

Police told the woman's family that her car also struck a wall before the car flipped on its roof. No one else was taken to the hospital, police said. Police said the woman was not wearing a seatbelt.

After having spent semesters in Dekalb, Pisterzi was back home living with her family in the 5700 block of North Nina Avenue where she grew up, her father said.

Pisterzi said his daughter knew what she meant to her family. "I was pretty fortunate, I told her everyday that I loved her," her father said.